For his May 31 broadcast, Breitbart’s Curt Schilling spoke to Fox Sports commentator Jason Whitlock on a wide range of topics. The pair discussed topics such as Tiger Woods, racism in sports, and the relationship players have in the locker room.
Schilling, the host of “Whatever It Takes,” opened his interview asking Whitlock what he thought about the latest troubles facing pro golfer Tiger Woods.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, Woods was arrested after police found him asleep behind the wheel of his car in Jupiter, Florida. Initially police thought Woods was driving while drunk, but it later turned out that he had been having a bad reaction to some prescription drugs he had taken after yet another surgical procedure.
Whitlock said he was “glad to hear” that Tiger wasn’t arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and noted that it didn’t surprise him that, with all of the golfer’s surgeries and health issues, Tiger might have some issues with pain killers.
But, Whitlock went on to say he is still worried about Tiger’s well being.
“But, when I hear people like Jack Nicklaus express concern,” Whitlock said, “it does make me think that his problems are serious… he may be, the way everyone’s expressing concern, he may be addicted to these prescription drugs and out of control. Because he certainly should have known better to be driving with that stuff in his system.”
Whitlock then quickly segued to a different topic and told Schilling that he had a particular reason to join “Whatever It Takes” that day. It had to do with the ability of sports to bridge gaps and to bring people of disparate ideas together for a single purpose, the sports commentator said:
The locker room and participating in a team environment allows people with different points of views, different backgrounds, different races, different economic situations, to come together and find common ground amongst each other. And so, when I hear people go after you so strongly and it’s like ‘Oh, my God, Curt Schilling shouldn’t be allowed a platform, Curt Schilling is beyond the pale,’ I just laugh and say, ‘I’ve known guys like Curt Schilling my entire athletic career, Curt Schilling’s probably known guys like me his entire athletic career.’ Although we may not have a lot of things in common, sports allows us to come together and in things we do have in common and find a way to work together and help a team, and even form a friendship across our different points of views and background. And I hear so many people who have no real relation to sports evaluate you, evaluate me, and it’s so unfair. They’re trying to bring their non-sports values to us when actually our sports values and our ability to get along and find common ground despite our differences, that should be the guide and the role model for everybody in the rest of society. Rather than society bringing their values to us.
Schilling agreed, saying, “you earn a right to be in that locker room, you earn a right to wear that uniform, and most of the time if you’re worth half your weight in salt, it matters to you, it means something,” and as a player you don’t want to break the sanctity of that respect.
Whitlock replied saying, “Everybody has value and everybody, despite how flawed they may be… can provide the team something that can help them win, and achieve, and move forward,” he said before adding, “And if we just had more of that spirit in America and in the media, that even when we disagree, even when someone has a point of view that we don’t like, that person still has value, that person still belongs in the culture, in society and needs to have a voice.”
The discussion then lighted on the claims by Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones who insisted that he heard fans in Boston’s Fenway Park yelling racial epithets at him.
For his part, Whitlock was skeptical about the story saying that he would have wanted more proof than just Adam Jone’s say-so that it ever really happened.
Schilling reiterated his own position that a charge of racism would need serious corroborative proof that it happened and that, in this day and age of ubiquitous technology, the complete lack of any video or audio footage or even anyone else agreeing with Jones that racial epithets were hurled from the stands made Jones’ accusations highly unlikely.
Schilling then noted that he had a particular reason to publicly doubt Jones’ story.
“When we allow these things to go unchecked, I think we create or allow a [vision of America] to be created that isn’t actually the truth,” Schilling said.
Whitlock said that he “leaned” toward accepting Jones’ accusations at face value, but on the other hand didn’t find those who doubt it to be acting like racists:
I probably lean towards Adam Jones is telling the truth. But I’m not remotely offended by the fact that you strongly question it. That’s not offensive to me, that’s a fair point of view and opinion. You played there, you know the place well; it’s jut not an offensive [idea]….
It is possible for people, and it does happen, for people to make it up. Race and playing the race card is a weapon that sometimes people play inappropriately.
Whitlock ended his discussion with a saying he is fond of invoking.
“One of my saying is: ‘Freedom, you can’t have the free without the dum, d-u-m-b,’ that’s what freedom is. If there’s no dumb, you’re not free. So, you’ve got to allow that.”
“Whatever It Takes” is recorded weekdays from 9 AM to 11 AM, and can be heard online at Breitbart.com. The show can also be heard anytime, anywhere on your favorite device via recorded podcast.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.